Home-office ergonomics made easy
Provide your teleworkers with the creature comforts they need to stay productive
By Steve Janss
Network World, 08/27/01
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I ride my mountain bike through the desert several times a week, so when my wrist began to ache last year, I thought it was my riding. But it wasn't getting better, even when I stopped. It turned out to be carpal tunnel syndrome.
Fortunately, I recognized the symptoms before suffering permanent damage. A week away from computers gave my wrist a chance to heal. Since then, I've learned a few things about ergonomics that have helped to keep the condition at bay.
The technical term is "repetitive stress injury," or RSI. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration monitors all disorders that result from repetitive trauma, even if they are caused by moving your mouse back and forth on a neoprene pad.
Corporate ergonomics is more than just preventing repetitive stress injuries. It's about minimizing costs and maximizing long-term productivity by keeping all employees, including teleworkers, free from the devastating effects of poor design.
Many corporations have nailed the ergonomic equation for their corporate employees.But the setup for teleworkers is another story. A teleworker's office could be anything from a laptop on the kitchen counter to a bedroom crammed full of PCs. Unless you've visited, you have no way of knowing whether they're following the company's ergonomic policy. Advising your teleworkers on equipment and furniture can go a long way in preventing injuries.
Lessons in lighting
Good lighting reduces glare and squinting, as well as fatigue. If you find yourself leaning different ways to get a better angle, your lighting probably needs improvement.
My favorite lighting solution is a halogen touchier lamp and a reflective ceiling. The lamp costs $20 at Home Depot. The ceiling came with the house. The result - good, diffuse lighting with no glare or eyestrain. It's also a lot closer to natural light than fluorescent. Granted, it uses about five times as much electricity, but I'm footing the electric bill - not the company.
Furniture facts
Dina Muenier, a consultant with the Industrial Accident Prevention Association, reports that a worker suffering from RSI will collect an average of seven weeks of worker's compensation. Even a day's compensation can pay for a good office chair.
Since everyone is built differently, no chair meets everyone's needs. Instead of trying to guess their physiology, give your teleworkers a set of guidelines, a budget and directions to the nearest furniture store to find a chair that meets their needs. Expect to pay between $150 and $250.
Most office chairs are poorly designed. They lack proper lumbar support, comfortable armrests and the controls necessary to adjust to the worker. The best chairs include height adjustments for the chair and armrests, seat tilts, back angle adjustments and tension adjustments for the overall angle. The right chair is comfortable from the moment you sit down and stays that way after several hours of pounding the keyboard.
Desks should support the role of the teleworker. If the teleworker handles dozens of small pieces of paper, perhaps a traditional roll-top with some cubbyholes will work. Otherwise, stick to a desk with large flat surfaces. You can always add cubbyholes later.
Input/output feedback
Most computer-related RSIs result from manipulating data. However, if a tele-worker is retyping large amounts of text, invest in a scanner with decent intelligent character recognition (ICR), such as Neura-script's Intelli-Forms. Mitek is another contender, with seven distinct ICR products. If your needs are less demanding, try EDT's WinOCR Pro 4.0, for $40.
Numerous keyboards are available that place your hands at a more natural angle than the traditional layout. Unfortunately, most of them, such as Microsoft's Natural Keyboard, force you to rotate your wrists inward unnaturally. Others, such as the one from Pace Development, have a full six degrees of freedom, providing just the right adjustment for anyone. However, at $250, it's pricey - but it's still cheaper than losing a good employee.
Then again, why type when you can speak? Dragon Systems' NaturallySpeaking Version 5 comes in a variety of flavors - tailored for everyone from the home user to a corporate forms processor. Even though it's targeted toward smaller markets, I like IBM's ViaVoice Pro slightly more than NaturallySpeaking, in part because it learns from its own mistakes when you correct its errors on the spot.
One of the more promising technologies replaces the mouse with head- or eye-controlled sensors. NaturalPoint's TrackIR sits atop your monitor and lets you move the cursor simply by moving your head. It reflects IR off a reflective dot worn on your forehead, so don't forget to remove the dot before visitors arrive.
It's a neat idea, but for the moment I'll pass - I'm waiting for someone to pitch me a unit that uses IR to track my eye movement, which are a lot less prone to repetitive stress injuries than my neck.
Health hints
Educate your teleworkers on the importance of taking periodic breaks, and maintaining good exercise and nutritional habits to reduce the tissue damage associated with a repetitive stress injury. Finally, open feedback channels so they'll have a means of correcting something before it becomes a major medical problem.
Next story: Part 10 - Software sundries.
Janss is the president of Jansys Information Systems, a consulting firm specializing in IS technologies for small businesses. He can be reached at bizcom@jansys.com.
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